It was a happy homecoming on Friday night at Russellville High School as the Golden Tigers defeated the Ardmore football team by a score of 56-0.

Russellville improved to 7-1 on the season and remained undefeated in region play. The Golden Tigers’ defense recorded their first shutout of the year and sophomore running back Cam Phinizee surpassed the 1,500 yards rushing mark for the season.

RHS scored on the first possession of the game when Phinizee raced 28-yards for a fourth down touchdown. Manny Martinez added the first of his eight extra-point kicks of the contest to make the score 7-0.

With just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Phinizee scored again, this time on a 71-yard run. Then, with 18 seconds left in the opening quarter, Harrison Burch threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Bralynn Vincent to make the score 21-0.

Early in the second quarter, Phinizee added his third touchdown of the night on a four-yard carry. The RHS passing attack struck three more times for scores in the quarter when Burch threw to Cash Crumpton for a 47-yard touchdown, then passed to Michael Scofield for a 25-yard touchdown and later found Vincent again for an eight-yard touchdown to make the score 49-0 at the halftime break.

The second half served as an opportunity for a number of players to gain valuable varsity experience, and Russellville’s Tarus Davis finished the scoring with a 23-yard touchdown run with 5:52 left in the fourth quarter. The Russellville defense was able to hold the overmatched Ardmore squad to no passing yards or completions for the entire game.

“Russellville always plays well on Homecoming,” head coach John Ritter said after the victory. “It’s an important game for these kids, for this program and for this community. It’s really special to see our seniors go out and play as well as they did.”

Next for the Golden Tigers will be a battle for the region title with undefeated Fairview Oct. 27 at RHS.